


Misstep

by casinoquality



Category: 21
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-10-21
Updated: 2008-10-21
Packaged: 2017-10-23 12:34:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/250363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/casinoquality/pseuds/casinoquality
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Choi during and after. "He's never caught up in the downsides. The 'we could get in serious fucking trouble for this' no way, that's a plus. The 'Micky's in it for himself' doesn't phase him either. Big money, Big loss, Big gain."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Misstep

"Hey, dude," Choi grabs Ben's face with both his hands, slides them to his neck and starts walking forwards, pushing him back.

Don't let him destroy you, man, he thinks.

"Chill," he says.

Ben throws up his hands in defeat and waves off Choi's grip, a short quick grin to say he's cool, he's _chilled_ , ice cold.

Choi watches the anger recede in his too-wide eyes in his too-bright baby face and laughs.

Yeah, he thinks, yeah.

-

Later, much later, when Ben is nursing a drink (probably something easy, easy to swallow, easy to taste) and mooning over Jill, Choi slides into the open bar seat beside him and laughs loud yet slightly slurred.

"Man, man, just. you know. 'Talk' to her." He makes quotation fingers in the air, feigns slipping off the edge of his bar stool and tries not to count the seconds it takes for Ben to switch the focus from pretty blonde Jill.

Ben quirks his lips in something that Choi is coming to recognize is his 'I'm going to change the subject on you' smile and he can't quite bring himself to hide the grin.

"Nice shades," Ben quips, jerking vaguely in his direction with his half empty glass.

Choi tilts them on his nose, peers over them and raises on eyebrow the way James Bond used to do and says in his best respectable voice "Why thank you. Good Sir."

Ben laughs and his eyes only drift to Jill twice and Choi tries not to count it as a victory.

After all.

They're all just actors here.

-

Then the shit hits the fan.

Hits it hard and fast and messy and Choi's just fucking glad he doesn't give much a damn about any of it or else he'd be curled up and crying right now. It's all just a game to him.

He watches Micky get up and storm his way out of the hotel room, half listens to the bitter, angry and yet completely composed words coming out of his shark mouth and watches the way Ben tries (and fails) to be the big tough guy in his wake.

Jill is staring after Micky like she's heart broken.

He's not sure whether to be amused or not when he notices that Ben's expression is almost the same.

-

He's lying on his back, watching the fan spin slow lazy circles (and contemplating what would splatter where if shit actually hit it) and chewing on a chocolate coin when his door slides open.

He glances at it but all he gets is an upside down sideways look at a green shirt and scuffed sneakers.

His knees hit the carpet hard when he scrambles to twist around and Ben's twisting his fingers in his shirt.

Last night, when Ben had told them all, we can do this, and the room hadn't answered him back, Choi had thought. Lose my money, lose my money or have a real fucking good time and maybe lay the pretty boy.

He had been mildly proud of his hesitant 'kinda', cause yeah, he's an idiot, but not that much of an idiot.

Ben hadn't been nervous at all, not until Jill had given him the stare down, looked up into his eyes and then said yes anyway.

After that it had been aces the whole way.

Until right that second with a --

"You still in?"

Choi blinks and yawns and covers his mouth as an afterthought.

"Yeah,"

Jill's got a pretty mouth and if Kianna had seen right it had been all over Ben's skinny almost Harvard body.

He fumbles for his shades and says;

"Yeah, I'm still in."

-

Choi is a lot of things.

He's a thief and he's not guilty ever, he loves what they do and he loves why they do it. He loves sitting a table one night as this guy and the next as someone else. He likes going back to school when the weekend's over and looking at everyone from the top, right at the top and they can't see him at all.

He loves how girls will pass him over when he's not in two hundred dollar shoes on Tuesday, how he gets sneered at by guys with inferiority complexes. He loves how at the end of the week woman with more experience, and prettier, red mouths will slide their carefully painted hands over his shoulders and whisper into his ear; loves how guys with inferiority complexes will gaze at him with envy and awe and, yeah, sometimes they slide their hands over him too.

He loves it. All of it.

He's never caught up in the downsides. The 'we could get in serious fucking trouble for this' no way, that's a plus. The 'Micky's in it for himself' doesn't phase him either. Big money, Big loss, Big gain.

Choi just really doesn't care.

He wants the life, he loves the life and he's never doubted it or hesitated once. Not once. Not when Fisher went off the deep end and lost it all, not even when Micky threw himself out the door and shouted 'Find your own way back to Boston'. Not then.

When Ben gets dragged away by three guys and Kianna's pulling at his jacket and hissing "Shit, we gotta go, We gotta go!" and Jill is staring forlornly as Ben just hangs his head and walks with them, doom and dismay written all over his previously cocky face --

When they get back to the hotel and he doesn't show up that night, or the morning after --

When they go back through the airport and he's not waiting at the gate --

When the headlines in the morning paper read "BODY FOUND IN RIVER" and Choi nearly loses his lunch --

When they return to class and there is nothing, not a word. Jill's having kittens. Kianna cries and then fixes her make up and then cries again. Choi, Choi just runs his fingers through his hair and thinks

I don't want to play anymore.

-

Choi thinks about bodies in rumpled alleys, swimming at the bottom of the ocean with weights, brains splattered by a gun in the hands of a Mob boss.

He dreams about a half smile and hears the words "You still in?" over and over while he's trying to push through his last class of the day.

He swallows and wipes the drool off his mouth, packs up his papers and waits out until the classroom is empty before getting up and leaving.

Ben is standing on the other side of the door.

If Choi were Fisher he'd throw back his fist and punch him square in the face, if he were Kianna he'd probably make noises and hug the guy, if he were Jill --

"Dude," He says instead and tucks his thumbs into the pockets on his jeans.

Ben relaxes a fraction and Choi walks with him down the hall though they never do.

"Nice eye," Choi grins and Ben grabs his shoulder and pulls him into an empty class room.

Ben is bouncing from one foot to the other now, blinking -- or wincing, like the bruised eye can't quite catch up and Choi kind of wishes he were Jill.

"So, listen," Ben is saying and Choi tunes back into the real world and turns off "Touch Ben 94.0' "listen, I've got an idea."

And Choi's forgotten why he didn't want to play anymore.

-

Kianna is shuffling a deck like it's a nervous habit and Choi smiles at her, or over her shoulder, as she crosses one ankle over the other and starts explaining the rules to Ben's two bumbling but brilliant friends.

Choi stopped paying attention ages ago, right around the time Jill discreetly slid out of the booth to go the bathroom and not ten minutes later, Ben got up too.

He can see them from the corner of the booth, can see Jill's mouth moving against Ben's throat, the way his hands slide over the back of her shirt. Ben's murmuring something, pulling Jill further along like he's afraid to be seen.

Choi picks up Kianna's drink and laughs at all the wrong things.

Jill catches the split on Ben's lip with her teeth and Ben pulls back hard enough to knock his head against the wall.

I wouldn't have done that, Choi thinks, and orders another round.

-

Choi flirts shamelessly with everyone who talks to him that night. He's feeling pretty good about everything, the table is hot and he's got a bag full of magazines and cheap novelty toys that had been left unattended.

No one asks why he steals, they just roll their eyes and laugh.

Choi's kind of glad but he doesn't think he'll get the same reaction when this is all over and he steals something not from the hotels or carts.

He watches the way Ben and Jill grab each other's hands as they're fleeing, exchanging bags and making such ridiculously sappy happy faces.

He rolls his shoulders and pushes forward his chips and winks at the pretty ice blonde leaning against the table.

Gonna have to hold him tighter than that, he tells Jill telepathically.

It's only a shame he's not really telepathic, but she never had a chance anyway.

-

So the happy ending rolls around.

They all go home happy and rich and Ben wins his scholarship and Jill works out the left over issues she has with her dad despite his being dead. Kianna gets spotted and signed up for a model gig, something fancy and perfect because Kianna never did figure out how to be just one person. Fisher comes out from the woodwork to punch Ben again, for something or other but he can't really argue with the guy who got the girl.

Ben's friends are still around and doing _something_ but Choi only really cares about them when they give him a lift home after the group of them get together to help Ben move in at Jill's new apartment.

Choi worked himself up the first night they got back, cornered Ben in the bar and leaned in and thought, yes, this is _done_ and then Ben went and said

"I'm gonna ask her to move in with me. Or, y'know. Something. I think we should. Do you think we should?"

Choi had shrugged and pushed his ever present shades up onto his head, flipped out his phone and started fiddling with the buttons.

"Yeah man, sure, whatever."

-

When Choi starts dicking around with a med student at Harvard, one with super rich parents, a slight British accent and a taste for speeding down the road on his shiny black roaring bike, Choi had thought that maybe he was over Ben after all.

It was just a thing anyway.

But the group still gets together on Friday and talks about shit that no one cares about, and sometimes things they do, and when Choi rolls up with Danny in his smooth slick dress pants and button up and a hand tucked up in Choi's back pocket --

Ben looks a little confused.

When Danny meets a girl whose attention doesn't drift quite so fast and Choi starts bringing Tojirou to their meets, lets the guy fawn all over him because Tojirou has never been out of Daddy's thumb before and Choi is all kinds of fun, well.

Ben leans over with a frown and whispers to Jill.

Tojirou's Daddy flies over and there is an epic screaming match about Tojirou's dignity and pride and honour and Choi still thinks it's the most hilarious thing since fucking ever, but it only takes him two days after being tossed out to meet Luke.

It goes on. Kianna and Ben's pudgy friend have started to pick up on his routine and now they laugh extra loud at his dates jokes and give Ben meaningful glances (Well, the pudgy friend looks kind of concerned but Choi's fairly sure that's just because he's planning on being a sympathetic bedmate to Jill.)

Then one night Ben shows up at Choi's apartment.

-

"Yo,"

Choi's not sure what else to say at this point because Candi is asleep in his bed and his skin is covered in bullshit poetry because Candi is taking courses in Modern literature and philosophy and probably hugs whales on her weekends and Choi's really naked here.

He puts his hands on his hips and tries not to grin at the way Ben's eyes strain to read the smudged words that trail down Choi's chest.

"and today she said, I'm wearing my infidelity underwear, so don't get any ideas."

Ben blinks, takes a step back and says "What?"

"The poem. That's what it says."

"Oh. Right. Listen, I need to talk to you."

Choi scrubs his face with his hands as if to rid himself of sleep, reaches for the first pair of pants he sees and jumps into them. He doesn't look at Ben until after he's closed the door and when he does, his smile is brilliant.

"I think. I think I'm gonna ask Jill to marry me."

-

So yeah, maybe it was a bit of an overreaction and sure, Choi doesn't usually lose his cool but it was three in three in the fucking morning and Choi is not so laid back that he's not going to be a little bit annoyed when the guy he's been trying to bone for months turns around and says "I'm getting married."

Kianna is petting his hair as he bangs his forehead against the cafe table, stroking manicured fingers through it and making mock sympathy noises.

"Poor baby," she coos and he can hear the underlying giggle in her voice "do your knuckles hurt?"

Choi mumbles something that might be

"Fisher had the right idea"

or

"I have Denver Butson on my chest"

but is actually

"Let's go to Vegas."

-

Kianna and Choi spend the night at the slot machines, laughing and drinking and being ridiculously stupid with their money. They eat too much and drink _way too much_ and by the time they both crash in their shared hotel suite they're too tired to do anything stupid like sleeping together.

They wake tangled up in sheets on the floor and stare at each other for a second or two before Kianna reaches for his hand and tells him, softly

"You know, it's not the same anymore. Jill. She's not the same anymore."

Choi nurses his aching head and when he says "Duh, she's humping Ben and getting _married_ " it's not quite as bitter as he thinks he means it to be.

Kianna smiles and it's sad "Oh, Choi." and then she kisses him and everything follows from there.

-

They're on the plane home when he leans over and asks "Was that a pity fuck?"

Her laugh is happy and her answer "Duh," and Choi grins like an idiot all the way through the flight.

-

Two weeks after that Jill and Ben have a fight. Choi wasn't there but the way Ben's pudgy friend tells it, it was a blow out.

Jill had started screaming about something and Ben had started apologizing and then given that up when Jill threw a dish. He'd screamed loud and said something about "LIKE YOU CAN TALK. YOU WEREN'T THE ONLY ONE. HE WAS MY MENTOR TOO" and Jill had started crying and left.

Choi gets a phone call to come help move shit a day later.

-

Choi slides into the dinner both where Ben sits alone, pushes over a post card Kianna had sent from Hawaii.

The back of it reads "YOU'LL SEE MY ASS ON THE COVER OF THE MAGAZINES BABY" in flouncy capitals and Ben makes a comment about putting it on his fridge.

"So, you guys --" Choi is tapping his left foot against the floor, rapid and awkward and he really doesn't want to be here.

"Done," Ben's voice is hard and sad all at once and Choi thinks for only the second time in his life 'I don't want to play anymore' because he doesn't like the way that makes him feel.

"Yeah?"

Ben hangs his head and messes up his hair, reaches for the cup of coffee in front of him.

"Yeah. She -- Yeah."

There is a long stretch of silence, only the off beat tapping of Choi's foot to break it up.

"It was about Micky. You know."

Choi doesn't know what that could mean, seeing as Micky has been out of their lives for a while now and suddenly Choi is having flashbacks to Ben and Jill's matching heartbreak faces.

He really, _really_ doesn't want Ben to keep talking, he doesn't want to know but Ben speaks anyway.

"It took more than talk to get Micky back to Vegas."

Choi's foot stops tapping.

"I kinda wanted it to take more than talk."

Choi stops breathing.

Ben doesn't seem to realize that he's still talking, eyes clouded as he's lost in some memory -- either about Micky or Jill or the fight and Choi doesn't really care. He just wants out before this gets weirder and he has to wonder if he's in too deep because it doesn't bother him the way he wants it to.

"I thought I loved her, y'know. I asked her and it was all going to be great. Then we were celebrating and she said "No secrets, right?" and --"

Ben looks up, startled and Choi thinks, thank fuck.

"She thought I was in love with Micky."

Ben is laughing like it's funny, laughing and sipping at coffee and the expression on his face says he thinks Jill is crazy, thinks that she'll figure it out soon.

Choi breathes and starts tapping his foot.

"Are you?"

-

It's storming.

Thick heavy thunder clouds hang over the sky, rain falls in fat droplets against the windows and lightning zigzags across the sky in angry bursts.

Choi isn't aware of any of it because Ben's moaning loud enough to almost drown it out.

Choi slides his hand up and over Ben's stomach, his chest, and then back, cupping both hands under his thighs so he can press up again, up and in and it's good, it's better than good and Ben's tossing his head like maybe he really wants this too and it's not just convenient.

Choi bites back his groans and chokes on his whimpers and presses blunt nails hard into soft skin.

"Is this okay?" Ben pants, twists up stained sheets in his fingers.

"Huh?" Choi grunts and loses his hold on Ben's thighs and for a second it's awkward and vaguely painful but they get back into the rhythm of things and Choi has enough time to huff "yeah, yeah" before Ben is coming with someone else's name on his lips.

-

"So, was this some...pity...thing?" Ben's buttoning up his shirt, fingers stuttering when they come across one that popped off.

Choi is sprawled back against the sheets with his sweat cooling on his skin. Ben's eyes are a little glazed, his movements a little loose and uncoordinated.

Choi cups the hickey developing on his own throat and offers a vibrant grin that he doesn't mean.

"Yeah, man."  
-

"You're an idiot."

Kianna is munching on a chip, double dipping it into some hot sauce while they wait for Jill to show up.

Yesterday Choi had fucked Ben in Ben and Jill's shared apartment after they'd both managed to stumble home nearly blind drunk. He'd fucked him on the sheets that Jill had picked out, with framed photos on the bedside table and an engagement ring still on the floor where Jill had apparently thrown it.

Today, Choi is sitting beside his sometimes best friend waiting for Ben's Girlfriend -- because she is, today especially -- to show up so they can try to convince her to go back to Ben.

Choi got what he wanted so he should be having no trouble doing this. Theoretically, he should be fine.

In practice, he's feeling like maybe he's -- like maybe he's _something_ \-- fuck, fuck, like maybe he's probably, _kinda_ in love with Ben.

He chokes on his soda just as Jill slides into the seat across from them.

-

"I'm just not sure we work anymore," Jill is saying, talking mostly into her salad as Kianna makes the appropriate noises in response "I feel like we had our shot and it was good, but now we have to close the door on that part of our lives. I don't think I'll be able to forgive him for the, for the thing with Micky."

She lowers her voice when says Micky's name and Choi tries to not laugh hysterically and choke on his soda again.

"I mean, I accepted that Micky wasn't going to look at me that way _long_ before Ben even joined, and I don't feel the same about Micky anymore, god, of course not. But -- part of me will always hold Ben in this jealous, stupid place and I don't want it to be like that."

Abruptly, Choi stands up "Gotta go," he rushes, stepping onto the seat and then jumping over Kianna's legs in a vaguely acrobatically spastic move.

He's sure Jill and Kianna are giving him looks as he bails the hell out of there but he's also sure they can't hold it against him.

Jill because, fuck the girl talk and Kianna because she probably fucking knows.

-

So, Jill talks out her troubles with Kianna and they probably cry about it and then go home and watch movies and eat chocolate and talk about how much of an asshole Ben was for getting on his knees for a teacher.

And Ben had gotten drunk and let himself be fucked and then convinced himself he didn't like it after that. He probably stumbled back to Pudgy Friend's house and done equations and then played X-box and possibly played a little blackjack to remind him of the good ol' days.

But see, Choi isn't just the spastic kid who steals shit and does stupid things like falling slowly and _pathetically_ in love with the guy who got the girl in the end.

So he calls up Candi and spends the afternoon writing complicated algorithms onto the curve of her back with a inked pin so slowly that the black bleeds a little and when she laughs it smudges.

Afterwards they fuck in a slow, steady kind of way, both careful not to mess up the ink that had spread around to her belly, in between the valley of her breasts and they laugh all the way through.

-

Choi wakes up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night and wonders if Ben would ever let him do that.

-

It's months after the happy ending; the one where they all walked out of that Casino with grins on their faces and had then rode off into the sunset.

It's weeks after Jill and Ben decided to take a break.

It's two days since Jill had brought a new beau to their Friday night and Ben had sat next to Choi with the exact same heartbreak face he'd had when Micky first walked out, though there isn't any red hot rage here.

Choi wants to feel sympathetic, hell he wants to feel nothing at all actually, to just laugh and kick it off and pretend the whole world is playing by his rules instead but he can't stop thinking about numbers and a stupid poem he doesn't understand.

Everyone at the table thinks Jill was a bitch to bring Tony along, Tony with his clean good boy face. No one says a word though, not even Ben though he looks like he wants to.

Choi waits until most of the table is too drunk, or long since stumbled home to lean over and say into Ben's ear

"I'd like to undress you, he said, but would that make me an accomplice?"

Ben turns his head just enough that Choi's lips brush the shell of his ear.

Choi leans back a little, licks his lips and leans forward again "I'd like to write stuff on your skin. Cool?"

It's been two days since Ben hadn't looked at him, had looked at Jill kissing Tony and said "Yeah. Cool."

-

Choi is throwing M&M's into the air and trying to catch them with his mouth while Ben sits at the foot of the bed with his legs crossed and writes down the chances of Choi actually catching on.

 _Roses are red, violets are blue,_ is scribbled over the bend of Ben's elbow and they crease when Ben bends it to write down "Dismal" instead of an actual number.

They've been laughing all morning and Choi only has ten M&M's left and has just enough time to think _yes_ before Ben's cell rings.

-

"Listen, it's Jill and she --"

"S'cool."

"No, I'm sorry but she doesn't have the keys --"

"Dude."

"-- and I'll be right back, I'll just go and let her in and"

" _Dude_."

"and we can, I don't know. We can finish this then, yeah?"

"Go, man. I'll be here."

-

He doesn't come back.

-

Choi is singing loudly to some pop song that's blaring and bouncing on his heels instead of actually trying to dance and the girl who is grinding her round ass against his front looks like she'll up for going home with him.

He puts his hands on her hips and bares his teeth in a smile and keeps dancing until long after she gets bored and someone else steps up.

-

Kianna finds him asleep propped up against his apartment door and kicks him hard in the knee until he wakes up, sees her made up face and then gives her a salute.

"Yo," he tries to say loudly but it comes out dry and cracked.

He makes an apologetic face and waves at his throat.

Kianna rolls her eyes and waits for him to unlock the door, fixes them both instant coffee when he does and sits at his table tapping her red fingernails.

"Don't get mad, okay?" is the first thing out of her mouth and Choi forgets to be wary.

"Sure," he croaks "Whadya do?"

"I, um." she looks at everything except him and Choi narrows his eyes, wishing he weren't quite so fucking hung over and half asleep.

"I told Ben."

Considering he's hung over and half asleep Choi thinks it's perfectly reasonable to have to clarify.

"Told him...what, exactly? That he's a flaming douche?"

Kianna gives a nervous fluttering laugh "About you."

Choi spits coffee all over his cheap ugly rug with a tiger face on it and looks at her properly.

"I'm sorry! It just. It slipped out! I was just, I mean, he didn't have to just ditch you like that and I kind of. I got a little bit mad and it slipped out and --"

Choi tries three times to come up with something eloquent to say, or at least, not hysterical laughter and eventually settles on "Ditched me?" because he can't remember telling anyone that he'd had Ben completely sober and naked and lost him.

Kianna looks shamefaced and laces her fingers together, her coffee going cold.

"Well, I drove Jill to Ben's place. And he turned up to unlock the door and looked really um. Anyway, so they were standing in the kitchen and Jill got one look at him and then went all hurt and asked him if he was -- anyway." She waves her hands as if it will speed up the story or make it more coherent.

"Ben said he'd been with you and that you had just been messing around and just writing things, like poems and things and he showed her his arms and she calmed down and told him it was a weird hobby and they started making out in the kitchen."

Choi wonders if he's too young to have a heart break.

"And I just. I don't know. I think I snapped."

She stops talking.

Choi blinks and asks "Snapped?"

She nods, short and Choi can kind of imagine how the conversation went after that but he wants to hear it anyway.

"I um. I said 'Choi is in love with you, you jerk and Jill, you are still dating Tony' and then, uh, I screamed that they better get their shit together and sort of. Bailed."

Choi swallows. Opens his mouth. Closes it.

He figures the appropriate response here might be the hysterical laughter after all, so he closes his eyes and presses his head against the table and laughs until Kianna starts laughing too.

-

There is a very angry sounding knock at his door at three in the morning and Choi thinks immediately that it's Ben because he has a precedent for this kind of thing and so rolls out of bed.

He contemplates pants over no pants for a whole of a second before putting them on just in case it gets awkward really fast, but when he opens the door it's not Ben.

"Jill," he kind of gasps because fuck.

She smiles tightly at him and pushes past him into the apartment. She crosses her arms over her chest and looks small and vulnerable.

Choi wonders if he'd get punched for asking her to kindly get out and let him get back to sleep.

"Hi," she says and runs a hand nervously through her hair.

Choi doesn't say anything but, he's entitled. Being three am and all.

"I love Ben," her voice is quiet and Choi tries not to think anything "I can't date him right now, but, maybe. Soon. Okay?"

"Whatever," is what Choi says.

Fuck you, is what Choi thinks.

She relaxes and goes to leave "I'm sorry about this."

"How's Tony?" Choi throws out just as she gets her hand on the door. She freezes and Choi covers his grin with his hand and a fake yawn.

It's a stalemate between them but Choi has stopped deluding himself into thinking he can steal Ben away and Jill has apparently convinced herself of Ben's undying devotion.

Choi likes Jill, he does.

But he doesn't feel anything when he steps around her, opens the door for her and tells her "His choice, dude." and closes it behind her with an almost slam.

-

Choi finally decides to rock up at Ben's apartment where he has been spending his free time moping.

Before Ben even has the door fully open Choi is breezing through and speaking without stopping,

"So, don't stress, man. Kianna's like a model now and totally on crack all the time and everything she says is, y'know, said under duress of cracked outness and holy shit did you get pink blinds?"

Ben is staring at him and Choi starts tugging at the things, all mauve and girly and Choi is about to have a nervous breakdown over _curtains_ when Ben is beside him.

He's smiling like he used to, when he first joined their little gang, when he was nervous and yet excited and Choi thinks maybe his cracked out theory is going to work.

"Choi, I'm waiting for Jill you know --"

And wow, Choi is definitely not too young for his heart to break and won't Kianna just find that hysterical. Actually, so will his brother and Danny and Tojirou and probably Candi too even if --

Choi is muttering a "Yeah, yeah, man" and thinking, fuck I hate everything when Ben squeezes his shoulder where his hand rests.

"-- but I'm. y'know, she's pretty happy with Tony right now. I mean. It would just be a little thing. For a while. No deep and heavy strings and --"

Choi tackles him.

-

In hindsight, perhaps Choi should have made sure the table wasn't behind Ben before he gave him a concussion and cracked his head open.

-

They begin their 'Not Relationship' in the emergency room as Choi laughs his ass off while Ben's head is stitched up and the nurse gives them a scathing look for being happy in an emergency room.

Ben is kind of out of it and nearly passes out twice but manages a half decent kiss all the same, even though he bites Choi's lip a little hard because he doesn't have a hundred percent control.

They have to call Kianna to come pick them up and they sit in the backseat laughing so hard they cry and end up crashed at Choi's apartment for the weekend, sometimes fucking and mostly throwing shit off the roof and playing blackjack with Candi who comes over to pick up her favourite sweater.

It's kind of awkward and there are a ton of hit or misses whenever Jill comes up, and Friday Nights stop being fun right around the time Jill and Ben have a "My significant other" competition right over a bowl of peanuts which ends in tears and bets placed.

But Choi's never been in love before, and Ben's not too bad at pretending for a while and, hell.

Choi's not going to stop playing the game now.  



End file.
